The following is a copy of an email, with permission of the author sent to friends by a member of staff at Shire of Nillumbik following Black Saturday. From February 9 – 12 2009 she was able to act as the Relief Centre manager in the overnight shifts at the Diamond Creek Relief Centre.
Thought I’d touch base with you both as well to say what an emotionally and physically draining week this is amid such catastrophic loss and grief in my new Shire.
Heard the terrible news about Kinglake and St Andrews on the radio late Sunday morning. [I rang my manager] … I thought about what might be the most difficult thing for him to be doing out of work hours and rang to volunteer to do the overnight roster on Sunday/Monday, figuring that would be the hardest time to find staff. I thought others would be busy enacting their fireplan at homes nearby, or had family responsibilities or might simply be not contactable.
I worked the 8pm to 8am shift – thought you’d be interested to see what happened. We got many many thousands of donations, in anonymous plastic bags which quickly piled up to the ceiling. People were still pouring through the door after 2 am with stuff to give. The logistics were difficult as we had little instruction about the donations, and had to move well-meaning, generous, rowdy, happy people in the foyer away from those dazed and shocked devastated people who needed to go straight to Red Cross to register, etc.
Traffic was in chaos outside for ages and some people just dumped their donations in the car park because they couldn’t get in the door. Text messages were flying around with bizarre requests and rumours, so we tried to get our real requests onto radio, mainly to say thank you we are already overwhelmed with donations but desperate for volunteers to help sort.
When the rooms were filled to the ceiling we asked people donating things to stay and help sort and some did which was wonderful. People coming off late shifts heard and came in too, we couldn’t have worked as well without a bunch from a nearby Supermarket who worked from 2am to 6am for instance.
It took until Monday night when I returned after work for a short shift to find systems in place with sorted bags of foodstuffs, toiletries, bedding, clothing and toys. The bags are now being trucked up into the bushfire zone for distribution.
Lovely people in arts groups that I had been working with have been burned to death and colleagues have survived but lost everything. I am finding that crying, hugging and sharing stories as they are happening means I’m dealing with my feelings at the time, not bottling anything up. And I haven’t had any personal loss – I can only begin to imagine how long it will take for the horrors to recede into the background for these communities.
Note: The Relief Centre was based at the Diamond Creek Community Centre, Main Road, Diamond Creek
